Does jargon make you sound like a leader?
Want to talk like the ‘tall foreheads?’ Use terms like ‘low-hanging fruit’ and ‘evangelize,’ and your co-workers will think you’re a leader, a new study suggests.
Mark Ragan, who regularly maligns the jargon-speaking community, wanted me to follow up on a Marketplace story that asserts that using business-specific nomenclature offers major advantages.
I’m sure jargon junkies would agree PR Daily is overdue in giving them their say. Organizational newsletters and websites are far too lively as it is. Audiences are clamoring for executive speeches interlarded with corporate-speak.
Surely, lingo lovers are asking themselves whether my assignment marks a sea change in Mark Ragan’s approach toward workplace patois. If so, I have bad news. Our top dog threw the story my way because he hates jargon; he’s just morbidly fascinated by the idea that anyone would defend it.
“I have been teaching writing workshops for 17 years, and I have never heard a spirited defense of corporate-speak,” he says.
‘Positively impacting’ the groundlings
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